XV.

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, —­
One clover, and a bee,
And revery. 
The revery alone will do
If bees are few.

XVI.

The wind.

It’s like the light, —­
  A fashionless delight
It’s like the bee, —­
  A dateless melody.

It’s like the woods,
  Private like breeze,
Phraseless, yet it stirs
  The proudest trees.

It’s like the morning, —­
  Best when it’s done, —­
The everlasting clocks
  Chime noon.

XVII.

A dew sufficed itself
  And satisfied a leaf,
And felt, ’how vast a destiny! 
  How trivial is life!’

The sun went out to work,
  The day went out to play,
But not again that dew was seen
  By physiognomy.

Whether by day abducted,
  Or emptied by the sun
Into the sea, in passing,
  Eternally unknown.

XVIII.

The woodpecker.

His bill an auger is,
  His head, a cap and frill. 
He laboreth at every tree, —­
  A worm his utmost goal.

XIX.

A snake.

Sweet is the swamp with its secrets,
  Until we meet a snake;
’T is then we sigh for houses,
  And our departure take
At that enthralling gallop
  That only childhood knows. 
A snake is summer’s treason,
  And guile is where it goes.

XX.

Could I but ride indefinite,
  As doth the meadow-bee,
And visit only where I liked,
  And no man visit me,

And flirt all day with buttercups,
  And marry whom I may,
And dwell a little everywhere,
  Or better, run away

With no police to follow,
  Or chase me if I do,
Till I should jump peninsulas
  To get away from you, —­

I said, but just to be a bee
  Upon a raft of air,
And row in nowhere all day long,
  And anchor off the bar,—­
What liberty!  So captives deem
  Who tight in dungeons are.

XXI.

The moon.

The moon was but a chin of gold
  A night or two ago,
And now she turns her perfect face
  Upon the world below.

Her forehead is of amplest blond;
  Her cheek like beryl stone;
Her eye unto the summer dew
  The likest I have known.

Her lips of amber never part;
  But what must be the smile
Upon her friend she could bestow
  Were such her silver will!

And what a privilege to be
  But the remotest star! 
For certainly her way might pass
  Beside your twinkling door.